The Story Of The Five Balls And Other Habits Of A Housewife

I have been thinking about routine and how I have finally settled into one here in my new life in rural Alabama as a housewife. It's not that I planned it this way. I have been trying to find a job for a while. It's just that we live so far away from everything it's hard.

But I have discovered that I am now a stereotypical housewife. I do the dishes everyday. I do laundry everyday. I even make my husband breakfast and send him off with a kiss everyday. And I have been reading a bodice-ripper romance! It's usually not my sort of thing but I remembered this author as popular when I worked at the library in North Carolina and asked my mom to order me her first book to try it out through her paperback swap and I had no idea her first book was so Harlequin-esque. But I felt obligated to read it since she ordered it and had it shipped to me. I'm kind of embarrassed by the low brow selection but I shouldn't judge, it's actually not that bad and it's something to read.

Anyways, I was talking to my mom this morning and she was talking about how now that she is retired it would be very difficult for her to go back to work because of how she has created her own routine. It got me thinking...if I got a job who would do the dishes? Who would do the laundry? Would I have time to read anymore? I got panicky. How did I do all those things when I was fully employed for so long?

I guess I did all those things but not as routinely as I do now. Life is constantly a juggling act. I recently read James Patterson's book Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas. In it the narrator tells a tale called The Story of the Five Balls. Basically we are all juggling balls representing work, family, health, friends and integrity. You try so hard to keep them all in the air until you realize one day that work is a rubber ball and the other balls are made of glass. If you drop the work ball it will bounce back. The others will be changed forever if you drop them, even shattered. It is only when you truly understand the lesson of the five balls that you will have the balance in your life.

It was comforting for me to know that my routine allows me to juggle those all important 4 balls. And even though I've dropped my work ball right now, I can(and will!) bounce back.